Max Hawthorne is Exposing the Fitness Club Industry’s Dirty Laundry

30 DECEMBER 2013

Summary

With all the family get-togethers, parties and celebrations the upcoming holidays will bring, most of us will overindulge a little (or a lot!).

New Hope, PA – Not since the 1985 movie Perfect, starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis, have fitness clubs been exposed to the degree of Memoirs of a Gym Rat: One man's 20-year journey through the bowels of the health club industry, by Max Hawthorne. Hawthorne pulls from his real-life experiences to uncover shocking behind-the-scenes shenanigans with his humorous but eye-opening account of our nation’s health clubs.

“After 20 years in the business, I’ve seen it all,” says Hawthorne. “Walk into almost any fitness club around the nation and you’ll find it – sex, drugs, deceit, membership cons, locker robberies – you’ll be shocked to know what really goes on at these clubs, both during and after business hours. It’s all very troubling.”

Fitness clubs have adopted a radically different culture from years’ past. Oftentimes, being coined a “meat-market,” due to rampant SEXcapades among local hard-bodies, gym rat culture has taken a sharper turn for the worse. There’s the Jillian Michael’s wanna-be personal trainer, who screams out orders while getting a little ‘too much’ pleasure from your pain and inevitable post-workout vomiting. Then there is the slimy sales rep, who cuts down your self-esteem with shady tactics to convince you to sign a contract that will surely outlive you. And don’t forget the steroid-infused, Hercules types, whose obsession with sex surpasses the size of their biceps.

Hawthorne introduces us to a hilarious cast of characters with twisted wit and clever anecdotes, while guiding you through best practices to getting the fit body you want, without getting caught up in the negative side of a gym rat’s existence.

Max Hawthorne has more than twenty years in the health club industry. He’s a certified personal trainer, an avid boxer and martial artist, and has studied anatomy and kinesiology. He has seen it all, been part of it, and now plans to expose it!